Report: Fairchild Semi to cut jobs

SAN FRANCISCO—Fairchild Semiconductor Corp. plans to lay off an undisclosed number of employees from the company's fab in South Portland, Maine, a spokesperson said Thursday (Dec. 16).

"I can confirm that we talked with employees last week about the plans for our manufacturing site in Maine, and let them know that we will need to cut back on staffing at the site," the spokesperson said via email. "We’ve done this to provide open and transparent communication and to treat our employees fairly and with respect."

Fairchild is in the beginning stage of determining how many employees it must cut and plans to make an announcement early in 2011, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that demand for electronics continues to increase. "In order for Fairchild to compete in this global business, we need to continually look for ways to control costs and improve processes. Our goal is to build a cost competitive and long term viable manufacturing site," the spokesperson said.

The expected layoffs were first reported by The Portland Press Herald.In the report, the same spokesperson was quoted saying the layoffs would be confined to manufacturing jobs in the Maine fab, according to the report.

ON Semiconductor has similar product portfolio to Fairchild. But they had expanded their Idaho fab, twice this year. On the other hand, ONNN had not been as hot as FCS. I guess it valids the claim that "the more you laid off, the more you stock goes up".

I amn sorry to say that:
_ If company is loosing for few quater: get new CEO.
_ Lack of good engineer/worker: do not lay them off because you can not find them again.
_ Nalcy Pelocy should save hi-tech jobs (cut 1200 workers NASA jobs in Florida) instead of saving teacher jobs.
_ Govement should help these companies in need instead of throw money aways to the world (good for nothing).
Thank you

Sounds really bad when you hear about the lay offs. But I wish all the people who lose their jobs in this process should able to find a new job since Intel is also investing in the new fab in USA. The semiconductor business is definitely on upswing and the manufacturing industry is certainly looking for many professionals.